Reason had flown out the window a few days ago. Talamayas had said he'd keep him at his side, which served Wren's purposes as far as surviving here, but he hadn't expected to what extent. Anywhere Talamayas went, Wren came with him. Training his soldiers, talking to his first general about politics and relations, spending time with his men in the evening before they slept, even conversing with a human nomad group that provided the Sols with blood. Talamayas made no attempt to hide the inner working of the Sols from him, and Wren wasn't sure what to make of it.

Surely the man didn't trust him. Was it because Talamayas planned to kill him as soon as he got the chance and what he knew didn't matter? That also didn't seem the case with how Talamayas was just downright relaxed around him. Wren had never seen this side of the Sol leader, the jovial, friendly, communication savvy vampire who ruled one of the largest vampire houses. His people flocked to him, loved him, and they all looked at Wren with curiosity.

Not one of them looked on him with loathing. They all seemed to want to say something to him but eventually gave it up. All except for Shan Sol, who watched his every movement and counted his breaths as he trailed Talamayas like a bomb squad on a threat. The general really didn't like him, and Talamayas had to dismiss Shan more than once in a night to get him off his back. That backhanded look of loathing in Shan's eyes haunted Wren as he was left with Talamayas in whatever task he was working on.

A few days in, he felt absolutely gross from the heat, but there wasn't a bath in sight that he knew of. It wasn't in him to ask Talamayas, but he was going to offend some of these sensitive vampire noses soon if something didn't change. Following Talamayas, he ran through the ways to ask about where he might find a bath, and he gasped a breath as dark magic swarmed his body.

A hand clamped over Wren's arm and dragged him away from Talamayas, and the man didn't even turn back to look at him. Shan Sol marched him down a hallway, and Wren tore from his grips eventually, though much further from Talamayas than he preferred.

"What is this?" Wren rasped, and Shan rolled his eyes.

"You want a bath or not?" Shan asked, and Wren lightened his expression.

Had Talamayas noticed him thinking too hard on how to ask? The man was perceptive.

"I would, yes," Wren answered as calmly as possible, and Shan nodded his head for him to follow.

"I'm heading down there myself, so I will take you. It's a shared bathhouse, so you'll have to deal with seeing a few of us naked." Shan mostly spoke to the air as Wren followed him cautiously down a set of stairs that led outside.

They only walked under the stars for a short duration, and the chill was washed away as they entered another corridor that led to tiered pools that filled an underground save system. Light from the stars filtered in a hole at the other side along with some other magic-fueled lights around the roof of the cave. There were vampires everywhere, and Wren gave pause as Shan Sol disrobed right in front of him. Without a care in the world, Shan pulled his shirt over his head and then dropped trouser right in front of him. A blush crept onto Wren's face, but Shan motioned for him to do the same.

Stripping in front of vampires was sickening, but it wasn't like they hadn't see him naked from the waist up already anyway. More than half of the people in here had tortured him personally, Shan most of all. There was no hole in Wren's memory from the times Shan had tortured him, normally much more brutal than the rest. This was likely Shan's way of humiliating him because he couldn't harm him, and Wren was determined not to make a show of it.

Once naked, Wren stood before him with a frown, and Shan walked with him to an area of water falls. There, several men had just finished scrubbing themselves down, and Shan handed Wren a wash cloth and some soap. Ignoring that he was stark naked next to one of the most powerful vampire generals, he moved under the cool water and worked the grime off of himself with a sigh of near bliss.

It was so hot in the desert and he'd wanted to bathe every night since he'd returned. Wren became so lost in the process that when he finished and found Shen watching him, he reddened and stalked out from under the water. Of course, he had no idea where to go. There were a number of cascading pools that led further down in the cave, but all were full of vampires.

"This way," Shan said, and Wren followed the man around them to a small pool he'd missed on first inspection. It was big enough for only four of so people comfortably and was empty until Shan slipped in with a groan of pleasure. "Come in, Wren Song. The water does wonders for tense muscles and old aches."

It seemed like an earnest offer, and Wren slipped in after him, cringing from the cool water at first. After a few moments, he adjusted and stretched out in the water. The relief from the desert heat was so nice against him that he closed his eyes, forgetting who he was with. That was until dark magic ran down his shoulder blade from a finger as it trailed one of his deeper scars.

"What are you doing?" Wren gasped as he turned.

Shan pulled his hand back quickly, as if he'd not intended to startle him. "Sorry, I was just astounded by how cleanly they healed," Shan said with a smile.

Did the man think pointing out the times he'd slashed him entertaining?

"You take torture well, Wren Song," Shan spoke again, and after a moment of anger, Wren realized the man wasn't trying to antagonize him. Was this his version of small talk? "Most beg, cry, and break. I suppose you did your fair amount of screaming, and I know you cried on occasion, but you were always composed and ready each night to be worked over." There was no mischief in the man's voice. Shan Sol was really complimenting him, and Wren let out a small sigh as he pushed back in the water to lean against the pool's side and relax.

"I'm not sure I can compliment your torturing," Wren said with a hush of breath that had Shan laughing.

"That's fair. I'm not a torturer," Shan said with a wide smile that just about melted all of the worry Wren had about this man potentially waiting to break him in half. "Talamayas instructed that we keep you... occupied from dusk till dawn, and most of us had never really tortured anyone. So it was new and strange for us. Sorry if we didn't live up to your experienced mage torturers."

"Why did you do it if you don't normally?" Wren asked, and Shan snapped his mouth shut before turning from him. Was this something he wasn't allowed to know?

"You don't like to be alone," Shan said slowly.

Wren opened his mouth and then closed it slowly as he tried to process what Shan was saying.

"Talamayas said that someone was to be with you during all of your waking hours, varying the severity of torture to give you a cooling off period. His only order was never to leave you by yourself."

"I also don't like to be tortured," Wren argued, and Shan chuckled.

"Talamayas has a strange way of showing his affection. You expressed to Vice that you were comforted by the presence of our kind, be it only in torture, because it drowned out your nightmares. So Talamayas took it on himself to make sure you were not left to your own terrors."

"I told him not to say anything about that to Talamayas," Wren groaned, and Shan grabbed his shoulder in a friendly gesture that still had Wren jerking lightly.

"Please, Vice is dangerously loyal to Talamayas. There is nothing he wouldn't do for him, so spilling what a prisoner said to him in a cell should have been expected. That aside, Talamayas is unhealthily attached to you"

"I hadn't noticed," Wren ground out, wandering his gaze up to the nightmare of a ceiling covered in stalactites.

"I understand that you're frightened of Talamayas," Shan continued.

"That was never in question." Wren didn't know where the man was going with this.

"Why?"

Why? Wren met the general's eyes, and Shan's expression seemed unhappy. Wren wasn't sure what wrong he'd committed.

"Talamayas has the power to throw me back out on my own, and I'll perish, blood writ or not." Wren tried not to growl it at Shan, but it didn't come out friendly.

"He won't," Shan said with a strange smile. "We could barely get him out of his room and he didn't sleep much after losing you. Talamayas wants you here, but he values honesty and loyalty above other things. You don't need to feign needing to be by his side. If you huddled in a room by yourself, he'd harass you for attention anyway."

"Do you think it wise to speak about your master that way?" Wren said with caution, and Shan chuckled.

"Talamayas values honesty and loyalty above other things. I've said this. It makes no difference if we grumble about him or adore him, as long as he knows we're loyal. None of us would dare turn on him, but some of us whine more than others about a particular mage."

"You seem to be the only one who has any animosity toward me." It was something that bothered Wren, and this man seemed to be open to answers.

"I wouldn't call it animosity, but rather caution in accepting you. The rest of Tala's people know that he has sound judgement, so they won't second guess him if he wants to pin a mage to his side. I, on the other hand, have seen what you do to him, and it worries me."

"What I do to him?"

"Yes. For some strange reason, Talamayas responds to dangers toward you as if you are one of his own, reacting violently and protectively even toward me. You're important to him, Wren Song, even if he doesn't fully understand why. Do everyone here a favor and just stop pretending. You only push him away that way, and if your aim is to stay here, honesty will get you a lot further."

Wren wasn't sure how to respond to that, and Shan was not forthcoming with information afterward. Shan left the baths long before Wren did, and he spent the rest of his time in the baths in contemplation. On occasion, a vampire slipped over to chat with him. They were just as awkward as Shan, having no real other talking point but his torture. It was strangely calming to talk to them without a filter and humor their curiosities. By the time he slipped out, he was a prune, and a Sol he didn't know came up to him with a stack of clean clothes.

It took Wren a moment to accept them, but he put them on anyway. Talamayas had kept him in mage attire over the years, likely preferring that when he tortured him, but the clothes they offered were the ones the Sols wore. A tight fitting black sleeveless shirt contoured his chest but breathed amazingly for the heat, and the pants were loose as they wound their way down and tightened at his ankles. Wren had to take a second look at himself reflected in the water, his long red hair trailing down his shoulders. The Sol vampire with him uttered a compliment that had Wren blushing and shuffling off into the castle.

Everyone was settling in for the night, and something drew Wren to find Talamayas even though he didn't have to be at his side. The man was in his bed chamber by the dungeons and Wren wondered why Talamayas slept here in a storage room of all places. They had much grander rooms that he could occupy, but he'd chosen to linger near the dungeons. Why? The man knew that Wren couldn't have escaped, and getting there didn't take much more time from anywhere else in the castle with how fast vampires moved.

Why had he wanted to be close to him?

"Wren," Talamayas opened his door and greeted him with a smile that showed all of his teeth. "Come to snuggle me?"

Wren rolled his eyes as Talamayas cackled. For the last few days, Wren had been occupying the same small room not far down the hall, and each and every evening, he'd woken to Talamayas nearly leaning over him and nudging him out of his bed to start the night.

Why was he here?

"I..." Wren lowered his eyes as the frustration bubbled up into him.

"It's okay. I know," Talamayas responded, but Wren wasn't sure he did.

For decades, he'd woken in terror each day of what the man was going to inflict upon him, and now that he was out of a cell, Talamayas seemed just dandy with palling around with him like it had never happened. How could he just forget all of his hatred for him and let him stay here? Why did he want him around, and why had Shan made it seem like he was welcome here?

"I hate you," Wren growled to the floor even though he didn't–that was what was so infuriating. No matter how much he tried and how much he hated what Talamayas had done to him, he didn't feel that way toward the man himself.

"Have a nice day, Wren," Talamayas said with a modicum of annoyance, but more so amusement as he shut his door and left him out in the hallway.

Roaming the hallways did nothing to ease Wren's frustration, and an hour or two later, he found himself at Talamayas' door again. If Shan wanted him to be honest with Talamayas, there were a number of things Wren desired. Mostly to pay the man back for his situation his was stuck in, to give Talamayas a taste of his own medicine. The thought was terrifying as to what the response would be, but it was the best way to test what Shan had said.

None of that could be done in the hallway.

Wren entered Talamayas' room, opening the door and shutting it with little sound, expecting the man to rouse and break him on the other side. In the darkness, nothing moved though, and he found his way to a chair between two book cases. There, a bit creepily, Wren watched Tala sleep. It was certainly a spectacle.

Wren leaned in to get a closer look at the vampire unconscious and was enthralled by his behavior. When he got close enough, Talamayas turned toward his energy and his lower lip slipped open to show his fangs. Did the man crave him so much that even in slumber he wanted him? Wanted him for what though?

Wren wanted to shake him awake and demand the man makes some sense, but touching him was beyond him. That was closer than Wren wanted to be, but this man had tortured him by watching him sleep and waking him to bring him pain for so long that he wanted to pay it forward.

This asshole owed him answers.

Hands in front of him, Wren sparked magic at his fingertips for a meaningless spell. It didn't need to do anything; the light energy in itself would set off every vampire here and no one could harm him. Talamayas' red eyes snapped open and he growled as he swept the room for danger before he landed on Wren's hands.

"It's not fun being woken up when you're sleeping, is it?" Wren said in a flat tone, and Talamayas rolled his lips back, but no snarl came before he snapped them shut and lay back down. The torment wasn't satisfying because it looked like Wren had slapped the man instead of angering him.

Why would such a thing bother Talamayas?

Wren dropped the zapping between his fingers to look at Talamayas, and they both just stared. Talamayas looked tired, like he hadn't been sleeping well, and Wren regretted tormenting him but not long enough to stop. Just as Talamayas eyes slipped back shut, Wren bounced more light magic between his fingers, and Talamayas woke with a snarl and sat up this time.

"What do you want, Wren Song?" Talamayas demanded.

Wren wasn't actually sure. There wasn't a solid question anywhere in his mind. It was more like he was lost in a maze and was trying to find his way out by shooting up flares over it and hoping someone dropped down to save him from the endless halls he ran. When Wren didn't answer, Talamayas expression cringed and he flopped back on his bed with a groan of distaste.

It was only a few minutes of silence before Wren got bored and sparked a spell again. A cool hand gripped his throat so abruptly that his breath was squeezed off, and then his back was on Talamayas' bed. The man leaned over him with deadly intent in his crimson eyes, and looked as if he'd have already snapped his windpipe if not for the blood writ.

"Are you going to stop?" Talamayas asked with a low growl, and Wren didn't have words at that point. Just the man's hand on him had him quivering hard enough to piss himself if any part of Tala heated up with magic. "I need to sleep, Wren Song."

The words were a slow rasp, and as Talamayas fell onto the bed, Wren found himself in the most awkward position he'd ever been in. Talamayas curved his body and wrapped around Wren's back, a hand over his waist to clutch both of his skinny wrists in his huge grip. It tucked them into Wren's abdomen, and Talamayas dropped his face near his head and slipped a hand under the pillows to lock his neck into a tight hold.

There was really no moving, not even when some of the grip loosened as Talamayas fell back asleep. It left Wren there, surrounded in Talamayas' familiar dark magic but unable to move lest he wake the beast. While Talamayas hadn't kicked him out, Wren wasn't all too sure this wasn't worse. The sheer cold of his naked skin wrapped around him from his waistband up warmed to his body in minutes, and he swallowed as Talamayas shifted in his sleep, squeezing him closer.

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